Grocery planned for downtown senior assisted living facility

News-Sentinel staff report

Thursday, July 18, 2013 - 7:48 am

The city’s Redevelopment Commission this week voted to spend up to $15,000 to investigate the feasibility of a grocery store in downtown Fort Wayne, but one business owner is already planning that very thing.

Bobby Petras, whose family operates the Lamplight Inn at 300 E. Washington Blvd., said he plans to open a market of about 6,000 square feet in the senior living center, a former hotel. The ground-floor market will serve the building’s residents but will also be open to the public.

The store would sell a variety of produce, packaged and fresh items. Work could start this fall.

Lamplight Communities of Toronto, Ohio, acquired the property in 2010. The 208-room hotel had opened as a Sheraton in 1967.